Day after getting bail,Musharraf re-arrested in Lal Masjid case

Complaint against Musharraf in the Lal Masjid case was registered last month on the orders of a judge.

Written by: Reuters

2 min readIslamabadOct 11, 2013 12:00 AM IST

Pakistan re-arrested former president Pervez Musharraf on Thursday after accusations that he was personally responsible for the deaths of more than 100 people when he ordered commandos to storm the Lal Masjid in 2007.

The operation at the radical mosque in the capital of Islamabad followed a week-long standoff between the mosques supporters and security forces.

The re-arrest came after Musharraf had been granted bail in three other cases and his lawyer said on Wednesday he was cleared to leave the country.

A complaint against Musharraf in the Lal Masjid case was registered last month on the orders of a judge. Police superintendent Mohammed Rizwan said Musharraf had been accused but not formally charged.

Musharraf,then the head of the army,took power in a 1999 coup but was ousted by popular protests led by the countrys judiciary. He went into exile in 2008 but returned earlier this year in an abortive attempt to launch a political career.

His arrest broke a tradition that Pakistans powerful army chiefs are never arrested,even after they leave office. The military has ruled Pakistan for more than half of the countrys history.

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